Kumo Knightsbridge Japanese Restaurant & Cocktail Bar Review

Kumo Knightsbridge is fabulously famous for it`s sushi, cocktails and dancing with no doubt! As we turned off left to Beauchamp Place from Brompton Road, on foot, we paced up and down trying to find the entrance. It`s fair to say that if you didn`t know this club was situated on this road then you`d never even know it was there, however, I just think this added to its exclusivity quality.

Finally, when we had actually found Kumo itself we were greeted by the girl on the door who directed us down the stairs, which led us directly to the small bar area – the bar itself was sumptuous and red! We really didn`t know what to expect when we arrived. Was Kumo supposed to be a restaurant, club or cocktail bar – we had no idea? Hence we arrived in fairly casual attire, not something I`d recommend if you truly want to fit in with the scene – a show stopping dress and killer heels would have been much more appropriate. We headed straight to the bar where Kumo`s owner, Manoj Lad greeted us with such a warm and friendly welcome. Once the formalities were over he shared with us his ethos and passion for the place along with other projects he is involved with, which all sounded very exciting – watch this space!

The ambience felt light hearted, friendly and laid back, the music was happy with a chilled vibe, and the décor was dark and intimate with striking accents of red neon with an overall funky Japanese inspired theme. We instantly loved it and felt completely relaxed to start enjoying our evening!
We were seated opposite the bar where we had a great view of what was going on and once settled he kindly ordered us some of his recommended dishes including the Kumo platter and the Hibachi seabass fillet served with Wakame and Harusame sauce. He then recommended two delicious cocktails for us to try, the first was called Haki, a lemongrass infused Finlandia vodka, passion fruit, lemon curd, cherry juice and Mandarin Napoleon, shaken and served with homemade passion fruit foam. The second one was called Passion Hikaru, which consisted of Cariel vanilla vodka, Xanath vanilla liqueur, shaken with passion fruit puree and served in a large Martini glass – this one I have to mention was my ultimate favourite of the night!

The platter arrived first, which was served on a huge piece of slate and the entire arrangement looked very exotic indeed. It consisted of small bite size portions of crispy fried baby squid with green chillies served with Ponzu sauce, yakatori chicken with spring onions grilled on skewers, grilled king prawns with yuzu miso, seared scallops with Shiso on a bed of pak choi, garlic, chilli, ginger and coriander with a drizzle of soy and sesame oil and much much more. The food was to die for and ideal for sharing, we absolutely loved the concept of this informal style of dining in a funky club environment. Next the seabass arrived and I must admit it was a struggle to get through it due to the amount of food we had just eaten but I`m horrified to say we did manage to devour it all in the end. We chose a bottle of Pinot Grigio to accompany our food but I would recommend sticking with the cocktails, or if you do happen to fancy some white wine opt for the Sauvignon Blanc Reserva instead.

It was a shame our food had come to an end but having not even looked up from our table we had not even noticed the groups of people around us, the atmosphere was even more buzzing and music had gotten much louder! There was just one more thing to do before we left for the evening and that was to order two more passion fruit martinis!

Since our visit to Kumo I have told loads of people about the club, as we had such a brilliant time. I`ll definitely go back with a group of friends when I`m next in Knightsbridge and plan to stay there all night. We had such a fantastic night and definitely one to remember!

Kumo
11 Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, London SW3 1NQ. Tel: 0207 225 0944
Also available for private hire.